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Typhoon Haiyan is the strongest typhoon in the world this year and the most powerful ever to hit land. (Zander Casas)

Saskatchewan individuals, community groups and the government are pitching in with donations to aid relief efforts in the Philippines, following the devastation of Friday's typhoon Haiyan.

The true scale of the disaster has yet to emerge, but some estimates put the death toll in the thousands, with hundreds of thousands badly affected.

Saskatchewan has a growing community from the Philippines and people are trying desperately to get information and send help back to their friends and relatives.

Pete Escanlar is the President of The Philippine Association of Saskatchewan.

"We are trying to arrange with the shopping mall administration here and the major malls in Regina if we could have some kind of a donation table set up in their malls," Escanlar said.

Rick Kraus, from Regina, is on one of the islands of the Philippines.

A Filipino restaurant in Regina has also arranged with a shipping company to send people's donations of clothing, medicine, and non-perishable goods to the Philippines.

Rick Kraus, from Regina, is on a small island in the Philippines which was hit hard by the storm.

"It was terrible, I mean you know, you couldn't imagine the noise," Kraus said Monday. "It was unbelievable how much water and the gusts of wind and every once in a while a tree would take off or a roof of a building or something."

On Monday, the provincial government announced a donation of $250,000 to relief for the Philippines.

"I offer our prayers, our thoughts, our best wishes to the thousands of families in the Philippines dealing with the devastation and loss of life in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan," Premier Brad Wall said in a statement. "Those same thoughts and prayers we tender for the many of our fellow Filipino residents of Saskatchewan who are devastated by the storm and the great losses the storm has caused to their homeland, friends and family."

The federal government has also announced that it will match every dollar Canadians donate to registered charities, in support of the Philippines relief effort, until Dec. 8.

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